


so much history in my head

by princessoftheworlds



Series: to build a home [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Jack Feels, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Pre-Episode: s02e06 Reset, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:43:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftheworlds/pseuds/princessoftheworlds
Summary: Karolina is faced with the sudden prospect of her grown son and his new family.
Relationships: Jack & Jack's Mother, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: to build a home [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028292
Comments: 23
Kudos: 73





	so much history in my head

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Kai for editing and sorry for the delay before this one. 
> 
> Some news! This series will be posting on a biweekly (aka every OTHER week) basis on Sundays alongside it's (not) all an act, aka my janto celebrity AU. sing me like a choir will hopefully be resuming by next Friday or, hopefully before, the end of the month. Either way, I hope y'll enjoy this installation!

Eventually, the tears abate. Karolina finds herself able to loosen her grip around her adult son and glances directly at his face, and she recognizes Franklin and is nearly set off into tears again.

“ _ How can this be? _ ” she asks in the familiar Boeshane dialect, the alphabet of which she remembers teaching a babbling, wide-eyed toddler Javic. She remembers how he’d sidestepped the question when she first asked it only half an hour previous, before he revealed the truth. That feels like ages ago, lifetimes even now. She has one of her sons back, one of the three fragments of her heart back. “ _ How can I be in 2008? I was just in Boeshane. _ ”

Javic smiles sadly at her, leading her to sit on the edge of the strange bed. He sits down beside her. Then he begins to explain.

According to Javic, there are several rifts in space and time that open up and close without prediction. One of them opened up on Boeshane and swallowed Karolina, spitting her out in twenty-first century Cardiff, a city whose name Javic says with a slight amount of pride and affection, the same way Karolina remembers him saying Boeshane.

Torchwood, the organization Javic now leads, helps people like Karolina and helps guard the Rift. They found her. And now, they will protect her and give her a new home.

“ _ And there’s no way back? _ ” she asks, her hands wrapped in a death grip around one of his arms. And he shakes his head but says nothing else. She nods, still sure she’s in shock considering that this news seems paltry to her after the reappearance of Javic. It will likely hit her dramatically later. She can only focus on the immediate right now. “ _ But Javic… _ ” He looks at her, holding her stare, but again waits for her to speak. “ _ How are you here, darling? How did you come to be in 2008 Cardiff? _ ”

It seems as if he’s been here for a while, judging by how well-integrated he has become to this time, into his team.

“ _ I… _ ” He reaches up to scratch the back of his neck, just as he used to when he lied to her about completing one of the chores or that he didn’t sneak off to the beach to watch the sunrise. “ _ I became a Time Agent. _ ” He says nothing else. She doesn’t push. He will tell her eventually. She’s his mother. After a long,  _ long _ moment, he adds, “ _ Mom, my teammates - my friends, they don’t know me as Javic Thane. They know me as Captain Jack Harkness. _ ”

“Captain Jack Harkness,” tries Karolina, wincing at how the unfamiliar syllables bounce and flail on her tongue. “ _ Do you wish for me to call you Jack? Or Captain Harkness? _ ”

Javic shakes his head. “ _ No, Mom. Call me Javic. It’s the name you gave me. I didn’t keep it then, but I want to keep it now. _ ” He takes a moment to huff. “ _ This will become quite confusing eventually. We might as well try to help you now. _ ” He raises his left wrist to his mouth, and Karolina notices, for the first time, a leather band strapped to his wrist. “Tosh,” he says into the band and then rattles off in that unfamiliar language again.

When he is done, she asks, “ _ What language are you speaking? _ ” A beat. “ _ And what is that? _ ” She points to the leather band.

He lifts his wrist up, tapping the band. “ _ This is a vortex manipulator. I got it as a Time Agent. It’s supposed to let you travel through time and space, but mine is currently...broken. _ ” And then, a nerve in his jaw twitches as he grits his teeth, and she realizes he’s angry about this vortex manipulator being broken, but he says no more. “ _ And the language I was speaking is English. Earth English. We always heard about it. _ ”

“ _ Can I learn it? _ ” She’s always been good at languages. 

Cracking a smile, he nuzzles his head against her shoulder, which doesn’t feel as awkward as it should, considering his height advantage over her. “ _ We’re working on that. _ ”

At that moment, an average-heighted Asian woman with dark hair and odd eyepieces appears at the doorway of this strange room and beckons over to Javic, handing him a slim black case. Javic takes it and approaches Karolina, slowly opening the case to reveal a silver piece of twisted jewelry that resembles an ear cuff.

“ _ This is a universal translator, _ ” he says, gently taking the cuff and passing it over to her. “ _ Fell through from the forty-ninth century but should be pretty similar to what we were used to on Boeshane. _ ”

It weighs nothing when she balances it on her fingers. Carefully, she fits it snuggly against the fragile outer shell of her ear. 

“Hello,” Karolina says, hand reaching to trace over the translator, knowing that it is already working from the faint echo in her ears. That strange sensation eventually fades away. “Can anyone understand me?” 

The other woman smiles softly. “I can hear you loud and clear. My name is Toshiko Sato. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Thane.”

“Hello, Toshiko,” Karolina says, smiling. 

Toshiko ducks her head. “Oh, just call me Tosh.”

Javic comes up, slinging a familiar arm around Tosh’s shoulders and pulling her against his side. He smiles brightly at Karolina, his eyes crinkling. “I’ve missed you so much, Mom. You’ve already met Tosh, but it’s time for you to meet some other important people.”

* * *

The rest of Javic’s team watches them curiously as Javic slowly helps her, Tosh following not too far behind, down the hallway and into a large cavernous space crammed with desks. Distantly, she hears odd, high-pitched squawks. (“That’s Myfanwy,” Javic explains later, eyes sparkling with mischief and fondness. “She’s kinda our pet around here.”)

“Ianto,” says Javic, and gestures to a baby-faced young man wearing an old-fashioned suit. “Could you get her..?” But before he finishes, the other man is already moving, rolling a chair closer that Javic leads her to sit on. Then he smiles at the man gratefully, with just a hint of affection. It’s subtle, likely unnoticeable to most strangers, but Karolina is Javic’s mother. And, with the way the other man blushes slightly, it becomes obvious that Javic and this man - Ianto - are involved, at the very least.

“Right, then,” a third man says gruffly, stepping forwards toward Karolina. He’s short and wiry, with sharp features. “I’m Doctor Owen Harper. How are you feeling, Karolina?”

“A bit weak,” Karolina tells him, and Javic’s warm, steady hand comes to rest on her shoulder. “I am still a little confused and dizzy.”

Owen nods. “That’ll fade over time, but for now, we can at least get you some food.” 

“I think we should have leftovers from lunch,” Tosh volunteers, and disappears across the large space. 

“This is Gwen,” Javic says, pointing to a smiling, doe-eyed woman wearing an impressive leather jacket. “Gwen Cooper. She’s my second-in-command. 

“Hello,” Gwen says, waving. She keeps shifting her eyes between Karolina and Javic, looking as if she wants to say something but is reluctantly holding her tongue. Karolina thinks Gwen might be as nervous as she is to talk to her. Javic gives her a wide smile, which she returns enthusiastically but looks at Karolina the same way she did when she first saw her. 

“Owen is our doctor. Tosh is our technology expert. And Ianto is a bit like our butler, but really, he does everything,” Javic continues. 

“When Jack says everything,” Ianto says, coming from out of nowhere to hand Karolina a glass of water, “he really does mean  _ everything. _ ”

Javic winks at Ianto. Karolina narrows her eyes at them. Yes, they are definitely involved.

She sips at her water, finding it refreshingly cool, and then drains the glass; she didn’t realize how thirsty she was. Silently, Ianto takes the glass and refills it with a pitcher he’s set on a nearby desk.

“Thank you,” she tells him.

“Of course,” he replies smoothly.

Gwen and Ianto exchange a series of looks, seemingly communicating silently. They stare at each other until Ianto nods slightly and looks away - perhaps they’ve reached some kind of agreement. Javic’s whole team appear to be quite in tune with each other and are treating her with the same sort of awed respect, like they are surprised by her existence. 

Tosh reappears by the desk, clutching a steaming plastic container of rice and some kind of liquid that resembles curry. “This was all we had for right now,” she says apologetically as she hands the container to Karolina. “I’ll order pizza for later.”

“I’ll get on that,” Ianto says, and heads towards the direction Tosh came from. Gwen, who has not really said much thus far, smiles at Karolina before running after him, linking arms when she catches up to his long strides.

Karolina digs a fork into the rice, mixing in what she supposes to be curry, before glancing up at Javic. He’s smiling, but there is poorly-hidden concern in his eyes. He looks towards Owen.

“What should we do now?” he asks the doctor.

“Let her eat,” Owen says as Karolina takes her first forkful of mouth. The curry is almost sweet, and she finds herself beginning to eat slightly quickly. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was either. “Afterwards, I’ll check her blood work and run some more tests, ones we’ve run on you before, that might be able to tell us more about if she’s alright. And well, if once I declare her fine and well…” He shrugs.

“Then we’ll work on getting you acclimatized to the twenty-first century,” Javic decides, turning back to her. “Gwen and I will help you. She’s good at that stuff - you’ll love her.”

“This is quite a life you’ve built here, Javic,” Karolina notes, and his gaze becomes wide-eyed, almost hopeful. He’s waiting for her approval, she realizes, and her heart  _ aches. _ She was taken, and her beautiful, caring son grew up into a handsome, responsible man, but he still went those years without her, without his mother. Never mind. She’s here now, and she will continue to be his mother, should Javic want. “Your team is full of good people.”

He laughs slightly wetly. “I love them. They’re my family.”

She takes his hand in hers. “Then I shall love them too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [here](http://princess-of-the-worlds.tumblr.com/) or on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/rajkumarinik). I tweet and reblog mostly Torchwood with occasionally amusing commentary on nonsense. Please come talk to me and tell me if/how much you like my fic or like ask me about it on tumblr; all my schoolwork has become remote now, and I have limited social interaction.


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